Tuesday, March 1, 2011

Julian Assange Applies To Trademark His Name

By Jerry Smith Mar 1 2011
assangewatch.blogspot.com

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, through his London-based law firm Finers Stephens Innocent, has filed an application with the United Kingdom's intellectual property office (IPO) to trademark his name and the WikiLeaks name and logo.

The IPO will publish Assange's trademark in its official Trademark Journal on Friday March 4th. At that point there will be a 2-3 month period for anyone to object, otherwise it should go through.
If granted the trademark would cover the use of Assange's name in association with the activities of:

Public speaking services

News reporter services

Journalism

Publication of texts other than publicity texts

Education services

Entertainment services

Assange has not applied for the American trademark yet so you won't be seeing Julian Assange™ or Julian Assange® just yet. It should be interesting to see how U.S. authorities handle an application from an organisation and person they accuse of carrying out illegal activities.

It has become fairly common for celebrities and those in the public eye to try and protect their image by trademarking their name and likeness. Even Sarah Palin, who branded Assange an anti-American operative with blood on his hands, recently applied in the U.S. to trademark her name and her daughters name, Bristol Palin.

Assange is at Ellingham Hall in Norfolk,UK under house arrest and fighting extradition to Sweden where he is wanted for questioning about allegations of rape and sexual molestation made against him by Sofia Wilen and Anna Ardin, which he denies.

Last week Judge Howard Riddle ruled that Assange could get a fair trial in Sweden and said his extradition to Sweden would not violate his human rights. Assange's lawyers say they are appealing the decision.

With legal bills for Assange piling up he has taken on two book deals, one reportedly worth roughly $1.5 million

He said of writing the book:

"I don't want to write this book, but I have to."

"I have already spent 200,000 pounds for legal costs and I need to defend myself and keep WikiLeaks afloat."

WikiLeaks has also opened an online gift shop offering products like shirts, messenger bags, hats, buttons, umbrellas, and scarves with the WikiLeaks-related imagery on it. Some t-shirts feature images of Assange re-imagined as Che Guevara or gagged with the American flag.

David Allen Green, the head of media practice at Preiskel & Co and the New Statesman's legal correspondent said:

"It's a bizarre thing for someone associated with freedom of information to do."

Mark Stephens, Assange's lawyer said:

"It's not about restricting free speech."

"It's not that he's out there trying to make huge amounts of money. It's about protecting himself from being associated with things he doesn't know about or approve of."

"I suspect the application is more to do with his going it alone and using his WikiLeaks website to publish material, as opposed to somebody else pretending to be Julian Assange, which is probably unlikely."